Nuggets coach goes from UIW to NBA

Denver Nuggets interim head coach Melvin Hunt confers with his players during a timeout against the Golden State Warriors in the fourth quarter on March 13, 2015, in Denver. The Nuggets won 114-103.

Denver Nuggets interim head coach Melvin Hunt confers with his players during a timeout against the Golden State Warriors in the fourth quarter on March 13, 2015, in Denver. The Nuggets won 114-103.

Photo: David Zalubowski /Associated Press

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Denver interim head coach Melvin Hunt talks to Nuggets forward Joffrey Lauvergne in the first half against the Pelicans in New Orleans on March 15, 2015.

Denver interim head coach Melvin Hunt talks to Nuggets forward Joffrey Lauvergne in the first half against the Pelicans in New Orleans on March 15, 2015.

Photo: Scott Threlkeld /Associated Press

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Denver Nuggets interim head coach Melvin Hunt shouts to his team during the third quarter against the Utah Jazz on April 1, 2015, in Salt Lake City. The Jazz won 98-84.

Denver Nuggets interim head coach Melvin Hunt shouts to his team during the third quarter against the Utah Jazz on April 1, 2015, in Salt Lake City. The Jazz won 98-84.

Photo: Rick Bowmer /Associated Press

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Denver Nuggets interim head coach Melvin Hunt confers with point guard Ty Lawson during a break against the Utah Jazz in the third quarter on March 27, 2015, in Denver. The Nuggets won 107-91.

Denver Nuggets interim head coach Melvin Hunt confers with point guard Ty Lawson during a break against the Utah Jazz in the third quarter on March 27, 2015, in Denver. The Nuggets won 107-91.

Photo: David Zalubowski /Associated Press

Nuggets coach goes from UIW to NBA

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A few months before the arrival of a new millennium, a 29-year-old University of the Incarnate Word assistant basketball coach awaited his first game on a college bench after several seasons coaching Temple High School.

After throwing himself into his first preseason camp with the Cardinals in 1999, Melvin Hunt was focused on the season opener, just days away in mid-October.

Then the former Baylor star received a phone call that changed his life: It was from the Houston Rockets, offering Hunt a chance to become the NBA team’s video coordinator.

Hunt’s former Bears teammate, Dennis Lindsey, previously had the job but had been bumped up to Rockets director of player personnel. Rockets general manager (and Baylor alumnus) Carroll Dawson told Hunt that Lindsey had recommended he be hired.

More Information

Western race

With seven games left in their regular season, the Spurs are the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference:

Rec.

GB

1

Warriors

61-13

—

2

Rockets

52-24

10

3

Grizzlies

51-24

10½

4

Blazers

48-26

13

5

Clippers

50-26

12

6

SPURS

49-26

12½

7

Mavs

46-30

16

8

Thunder

42-33

19½

“I didn’t have any idea what the job entailed, but it was such a great opportunity I had to investigate it,” said Hunt, now the interim coach of the Denver Nuggets, the Spurs’ opponent Friday night at the AT&T Center.

“(UIW) coach (Danny) Kaspar didn’t want to let me go, but all those Baylor guys with the Rockets called him until he finally relented.”

Moving to an NBA job about which he knew next to nothing put Hunt on a path that, 16 years later, might ultimately earn him a job as Denver’s coach, this time without an interim tag.

Going from interim to head coach with a long-term contract almost is unheard of in the NBA — with Pat Riley being a notable exception. But what Hunt has done since taking over on the Nuggets’ bench after the dismissal of Brian Shaw has given him a chance.

Colleges

After losing 39 of their first 59 games, a skid that turned Denver’s once-rollicking Pepsi Center into a ghost town, the Nuggets won six of their first eight under Hunt. They have lost six of their last eight, with Hunt occasionally resting key players to gain valuable experience for young prospects such as Joffrey Lauvergne and Jusuf Nurkic.

But Hunt’s Nuggets impressed Gregg Popovich when the Spurs needed one of their most productive games of the season to secure a 120-111 win over the Nuggets at the AT&T Center on March 6.

“They looked great,” Popovich said then. “They did a good job, and their intensity was great.”

The Nuggets will have to be intense if they want to push Hunt’s record back above .500 on Friday. With eight games left in the regular season, the Spurs hope to improve their spot in the Western Conference playoff race.

Added incentive for the Spurs on Friday: They can secure a 50th win for a 16th consecutive season.

Hunt, 45, has paid plenty of NBA coaching dues.

After two years in that video coordinator job in Houston, he became a Rockets assistant coach, joining current Spurs assistant Jim Boylen on Rudy Tomjanovich’s staff. He followed Tomjanovich to Los Angeles for

Tomjanovich’s short stay with the Los Angeles Lakers, then joined Mike Brown’s Cleveland Cavaliers coaching staff in 2005.

After Brown was fired by Cleveland after the 2009-10 season, Hunt joined George Karl’s staff in Denver. When the Nuggets went 57-25 in 2012-13, he was picked the assistant coach most likely to become a head coach in a poll of NBA general managers.

Ironically, when the Nuggets fired Karl after his NBA Coach of the Year season, they passed over Hunt in favor of Shaw, who kept Hunt on his staff.

Hunt has made no secret of his interest in a contract to coach the Nuggets past the remainder of this season. But his immediate goal is to get his players through the final two weeks with the belief that brighter days are ahead.

“I truly believe they have bought into what we’re trying to do as a staff,” Hunt said. “I think they understand we’re giving them an outline, a skeleton, of what we believe in. At the end of the day, it’s about believing in themselves. We’re just a rudder.”